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Ongoing coverage | Missouri police shooting

New details in Ferguson fuel questions

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoFERGUSON, MO., POLICE DEPARTMENTA series of frame grabs from a security camera shows a man police say is Michael Brown involved in an altercation with a store clerk before he was shot to death.

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FERGUSON, Mo. — Minutes before a police officer shot him dead, Michael Brown had become a
suspect in the theft of cigars valued at $48.99 from a store, according to police reports released
yesterday after days of protests in a St. Louis suburb over the unarmed black 18-year-old’s
death.

But what, if anything, that had to do with the fatal encounter became less clear as the day went
by. Hours after the reports’ release, police said that
Officer Darren Wilson, 28, had no idea Brown was
a robbery suspect. He simply wanted Brown to move from the road to the sidewalk, Ferguson Police
Chief Tom Jackson said at a news conference.

“He was walking down the middle of the street blocking traffic. That was it,” Jackson said.

After nearly a week of accusations that the Ferguson Police Department did not know how to
communicate with the public, Jackson did little to dispel that image during two appearances
yesterday.

He was visibly nervous, stuttering as he fumbled his notes, and made announcements that sowed
more confusion. After releasing the robbery incident report without any attempt to explain its
fuller context, he let more than five hours pass before confirming, and only when asked, that
Wilson did not know about the robbery when he encountered Brown.

The decision by the police department, which is overwhelmingly white, to release a report on the
robbery while keeping details of the shooting secret only added to the frustration felt by many in
the St. Louis area.

Still, as protests entered their sixth night yesterday, there was far less tension than earlier
in the week, before local forces were replaced by state police led by an African-American
captain.

Outside a burned-out building where protesters were shot with rubber bullets two days earlier,
the scene resembled a summer carnival. Horns blew in support as cars drove past a crowd of people,
many of whom brought picnic coolers.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson linked arms with protesters last night as they marched to the site where
Brown was killed. Jackson bent over in front of a memorial cross and candle and sighed deeply. He
urged people to “turn pain into power” and to “fight back, but not self-destruct” through
violence.

Earlier yesterday, after identifying Wilson as the officer involved in the shooting, the
Ferguson police chief described him as a “gentleman” who has been devastated by the incident.
Wilson worked four of his six years as an officer on the Ferguson police force, Jackson said.

Wilson’s identity had been kept a secret since the Aug. 9 shooting and authorities had been
under mounting pressure to both identify the officer and to provide details about the investigation
to ease unrest in the largely black community.

A Brown family attorney said it appeared to be Brown in the convenience store’s security-camera
footage, which showed a man shoving a store clerk during an apparent robbery. Dorian Johnson, the
friend who was with Brown that day, told the FBI and Justice Department officials about the robbery
this week, his lawyer said.

Anthony Gray, a Brown family attorney, said the talk of a robbery was a “distraction” raised by
police. He said the real issue was why Wilson shot an unarmed Brown as the teenager held his arms
in the air in a sign of surrender, as two witnesses described.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the civil-rights group National Action Network, said he would
lead a rally on Sunday with Brown’s family, who expressed outrage at the police report in a
statement on Twitter.

“There is nothing based on the facts that have been placed before us that can justify the
execution style murder of their child by this police officer as he held his hands up, which is the
universal sign of surrender,” the statement said.

According to the account given by Jackson and the police reports his department released, police
received a call about the robbery and an ensuing altercation with a clerk at 11:51 a.m. on Aug. 9.
A suspect description went out over police radio.

Wilson left a call he was on and encountered Brown at 12:01 p.m. Three minutes later he had shot
Brown, Jackson said.

Wilson, who has been put on paid administrative leave, has been shielded from the public. A lone
police car sat outside Wilson’s single-story brick house yesterday, and neighbors posted signs on
their doors asking to be left alone. One neighbor said Wilson had not been seen for days.

Police said they found evidence of the stolen merchandise on Brown’s body. Authorities
determined that Johnson was not involved in the robbery and will not seek charges against him,
Jackson said.